Israel’s Operation Wetback

Jared Taylor, American Renaissance, June 22, 2012

A model for us all.

In 1954, President Eisenhower gave orders to deport illegal Mexican immigrants. The Immigration and Naturalization Service went door to door in California, Texas, and New Mexico, and caught and deported 130,000. During the same period more than 1,000,000 illegals voluntarily went back to Mexico.

In the last few weeks, Israeli authorities have shown similar resolve in deporting Africans, who have been sneaking into the country in ever-increasing numbers. With a boldness that every Western country should imitate, the Israelis have mandated expulsion for the explicit purpose of keeping their country Jewish—even for keeping it white. Once the government made up its mind that the Africans had to go, it went into action very quickly.

Later that month, several members of the Israeli Knesset addressed demonstrators in Tel Aviv who demanded that the Africans be deported. “We must expel the infiltrators,” said Danny Danon of the Likud party. “We should not be afraid to say the words ‘expulsion now’.” Another Likud Knesset member, Miri Regev, called the immigrants a “cancer in our body.” Some of the demonstrators rioted, beating Africans and attacking their shops.

Just a few days later, on June 3, a new immigration law went into effect, permitting detention of illegals for up to three years, and mandating prison sentences of five to 15 years for anyone helping or sheltering illegals. That same day, Interior Minister Yishai complained that “Muslims that arrive here do not even believe that this country belongs to us, to the white man,” adding that he would use “all the tools to expel the foreigners, until not one infiltrator remains.”

On June 8, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that South Sudanese illegals could be sent home, since their country was safe. Interior Minister Yishai said he looked forward to court rulings that would permit expulsion of “all citizens of Eritrea and North Sudan” as well. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his view that it was a top priority to finish a 150-mile wall along the Egyptian border to keep Africans out.

Two days later, the Israeli cabinet approved new legislation that calls for a five-year jail sentence and stiff fine—the equivalent of a $130,000—for anyone who hires an illegal immigrant. The text of the bill itself calls illegals “a strategic threat to Israeli society.”

On June 11, just three days after the ruling, police started rounding up South Sudanese for deportation. The UN protested, claiming that South Sudan was still too dangerous for repatriation, but Interior Minister Yishai was unmoved. “I prefer that there will be criticism of Israel while the state remains Jewish,” he said. One Tel Aviv resident who watched the roundup noted that “it must be done or tomorrow we will have no country.” Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed, pointing out that immigrants threaten the Jewish character of Israel. The Israeli Operation Wetback was underway.

We congratulate the Israelis on their vigorous measures to maintain the nation’s character, and look forward to the day when our country can do the same. Needless to say, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will never be like Interior Minister Yishai. She would never welcome a green light for deporting all Haitian illegals, and add that she hoped to deport all Mexicans and Salvadorans, too. Can we imagine the President of the United States explaining the need for a wall along the Mexican border by pointing out that Mexican immigration “threatens the European character of the United States”? No, we can’t.

Israel-Egypt border wall.

These things are a little easier to imagine in Europe, but what would happen to a British or French or—horrors!—German official who complained about Muslim immigrants who didn’t seem to realize that the country “belongs to us, the white man”? He would be out of work before he took his next breath, and the US press would erupt in ecstasies of indignation. When these things happen in Israel, the New York Times maintains a dignified silence.

There is, to be sure, a cruel double standard. Any American or European who wants an ethnostate of his own is a frothing bigot, whereas Israelis who want the same thing are heroes in their own country and respectable statesmen here. It is entirely understandable that American patriots should be angry about the double standard, but it is more useful to laud the Israeli example than to complain about it. The Israeli government is doing exactly what we would like our government to do. We should point to Israel as a model and encourage our rulers to copy it rather than grouse about others getting away with things we can’t do. We should celebrate this Israeli policy just as we would a similar outbreak of sanity in Canada or Australia.

This is the stance taken by the most successful nationalist parties in Europe. Whether in Austria or Denmark or Belgium or increasingly in France as well, Europeans who oppose Third-World immigration support the Israeli commitment to keeping Israel Jewish. They ask only that their own compatriots recognize that what is good for Israel is also good for Europe.

Likewise, it does no good to complain about American Jews—and there are many of them—who support an Israeli ethnostate but insist on multi-culti madness for us. We should congratulate them on the healthy impulses of their Israeli cousins, and invite them to see why similar impulses are just as healthy and moral for Americans. We must never forget that our goal is to advance our own interests, and attacking people who we may think are thwarting those interests is not always the best way to advance them.

Jewish or Israeli thinking is not monolithic on these matters. Israel has its own breed of suicidal maniacs who want to give their country away to strangers. We Are Refugees is an organization that passes out handouts and free legal advice to asylum seekers threatened with deportation from Israel. A few American Jews see the folly of our own immigration policies, and that number will only rise as the consequences of folly multiply.

The Israeli version of Operation Wetback is an unqualifiedly good thing for all racially conscious whites. We should support it, publicize it, and demand that our own governments act in the same manner. In this respect, Israel really can be, as it is written in the Book of Isaiah, “a light unto the nations.”

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About Jared Taylor

Jared Taylor is the editor of American Renaissance and the author of White Identity: Racial Consciousness in the 21st Century.

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